Written by Lindsay Katai
Storyboarded by Diana Huh & Jacob Winkler
Storyboarded by Diana Huh & Jacob Winkler
The group finds themselves confronting a strange old woman who's been investigating the mystery of the shifting train cars.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: The Cat left a needy 10 year old boy to a monster in a life or death situation, then upon finding out he was alive, never came back to him to avoid admitting to her mistake for nearly a whole decade. In real life, this would be considered not only child abuse, but a serious crime. Then when she meets up with Simon again, she gives him the equivalent of a weapon to use on his friend Grace rather then apologizing when not only was Simon unaware of the device, but was obviously not mature enough to handle such a tool.
- Armor-Piercing Question: The Cat gives one to Simon when he starts losing it about Grace not acting like he thinks she should.Simon: She's not acting like she should!
Samantha: And how exactly should she be acting, Simon? She's not one of your miniatures. - Call-Back: The Cat gives Simon a vial of the nanites from "The Tape Car".
- Cassandra Truth: Simon is in complete denial when The Cat tells him that numbers are supposed to go down.
- Continuity Nod: MT passed by the titular car in the her travel montage in the beginning of "The Black Market Car".
- Dirty Coward: Exaggerated. The Cat, Samantha, didn't abandon Simon to the Ghom on purpose when running away from it; she didn't notice that he'd been left behind until she'd gotten to the next car. But as revealed by herself, she didn't go back for him even after realizing this simply because she was afraid of the consequences.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The way Simon starts to get up into Grace's personal space, wants to tell her how she "should be", and getting upset about her "shutting him out" is eerily close to how an abusive boyfriend would act. It's further enforced by Hazel talking about wanting to fight Simon to protect herself and Grace from him, along with Grace deciding to keep Hazel's inhuman nature secret from him because she's clearly afraid of how he would react to it.
- Samantha giving Simon the device to invade Grace's mind and explaining how to use it comes across as an irresponsible parent giving their child a gun.
- I Am What I Am: When Samantha admits that she didn't go back for Simon even after realizing she accidentally left him at the mercy of the Ghom, she's pretty up-front about the fact that she's a flawed person, outright telling Simon this almost word-for-word.Samantha: I am who I am, Simon. I can't give you more than that.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Simon is in the right to call The Cat out for not returning to him for more than eight years.
- Conversely, The Cat is her usual jerkass self when dissects what Simon is really asking regarding Grace, but she's not wrong.
- Oh, Crap!: Grace gets this look when Amelia describes The Unfinished Car.
- The Reveal:
- The cluster that Simon has been tracking to find the Apex? It was actually Amelia. Her number is so ridiculously large, he mistook her gigantic blip on the radar as a group of kids.
- What happened with Simon and The Cat. When they were attacked by a Ghom, The Cat panicked and ran, not realizing that Simon wasn't with her until she had already reached the next car.
- The Cat's name is Samantha.
- Shaped Like Itself: The Cat claims that she never lies when she tells the truth.
- Unknown Rival: Amelia bluntly reveals to Grace and Simon that One-One doesn't even know who they are beyond numbers on a screen, and the cars have been moving because corrupted code was detected in them.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Not only does the Cat not apologize to Simon for her abusive parenting that left him with PTSD and a permanent fear of abandonment, she instead reveals a well hidden device Simon was entirely unaware of to him, explaining its used for invading human minds and how to operate it on people. This obviously will cause an immense amount of suffering in the future.
- She also tells Simon never to trust Amelia, further ensuring he will think Amelia did something to make Grace agree with her.
